Tag: spear fishing

DO NOT PAY ANY MONEY! IT IS A SCAM!

Screenshot: Spear Phishing / Whaling Scam email

Quick heads up to anybody searching for information about this. As of 24th January 2018 there appear to be an influx of emails to businesses around the UK trying to trick the accounts department into paying large sums of money to a new beneficiary.

The body of the email is short and to the point:

I need you to process a “Faster Payment” to a new beneficiary, can you handle this right now?

Payee details attached.

Regards

<Director’s Name>

Sent from my iPhone.

The emails generally appear to come from the name of a company director and the email address may look legitimate but the hidden “reply to” address is different and the contents of the email and attachment are a scam. The reply to email address is subtly changed and instead of .co.uk on the end of the email address it’s .co.uk-k.uk which a lot of people might not notice, especially on a small smart phone screen that truncates text.